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TNC’s Knowledge Base for Climate Change Adaptation

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)

USACE is a major Army command made up of some 34,000 civilian and military personnel, making it the world's largest public engineering, design and construction management agency. Although generally associated with dams, canals and flood protection in the United States, USACE is involved in a wide range of public works support to the nation and the Department of Defense throughout the world. With environmental sustainability as a guiding principle, the Army Corps is a leading and supporting agency in many large-scale ecological restoration projects (e.g. Everglades, Louisiana coast, many major waterways), is responsible for important aspects of Clean Water Act permitting of wetlands filling, and is involved in hundreds of levee, dredging, and other construction projects with potentially large ecosystem adaptation or "mal-adaption" implications.

The Corps' vision is having a great engineering force of highly disciplined people working with partners through disciplined thought and action to deliver innovative and sustainable solutions to the nation's engineering challenges. The mission of USACE is to provide vital public engineering services in peace and war to strengthen the nation's security, energize the economy, and reduce risks from disasters.  In achieving this mission, the USACE must contribute to the national welfare and serve the public by providing quality and responsive services to the Nation, the Army, and other customers in a manner that is environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable, and that focuses on public safety and collaborative partnerships. Mission areas include water resources, environment, infrastructure support, warfighting, and homeland security. Key mission activities include: 1) Development and management of the Nation's water resources; 2) Protection and management of the natural environment; 3) Restoration of aquatic ecosystems; 4) Flood risk and emergency management; and 5) Military and civil engineering and technical services. USACE and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation are the nation's principal water management agencies.

The USACE environmental mission has two major focus areas: restoration and stewardship. The Corps' goal for the environmental mission is to restore ecosystem structure and processes, manage the nation's land and water resources in a sustainable manner, and support cleanup and protection activities in an efficient and effective manner.The Corps manages numerous environmental programs that ranges from cleaning up areas on former military installations contaminated by hazardous waste or munitions to establishing/reestablishing wetlands that helps the survival of endangered species. Another area of emphasis is support to EPA's Superfund Program. The USACE environmental mission includes education as well as restoration, regulation and cleanup.

Climate change has the potential to affect all of the missions of USACE. The Responses to Climate Change Program of USACE develops and implements practical, nationally consistent, and cost-effective approaches and policies to reduce potential vulnerabilities to the Nation's water infrastructure resulting from climate change and variability. The USACE Institute for Water Resources works in partnership on this effort with other Federal science and water management agencies, and other stakeholders.

  • http://www.usace.army.mil/Pages/default.aspx, for the USACE homepage; 1) go to ‘About Us' and link to headquarters offices, interactive locations map with USACE divisions and districts*, centers of expertise, and other information; 2) point to ‘Services' and link to Services for the Public page and then Estuary Restoration Act, Institute for Water Resources, Operations (with link to Natural Resources Management, Environment-Stewardship) and other sites; 3) type ‘climate change' in Search window for links to documents, presentations and other information pertaining to c.c. response/adaptation
  • http://www.usace.army.mil/CEPA/Pages/home.aspx, for USACE Press Room page; go to Fact Sheets for Environmental Missions page
  • http://usace.armylive.dodlive.mil/index.php/category/environmentsustainability/, for Chief's blog re USACE addressing climate change challenges; go to "The Nation's Environmental Engineer" (4/21/2010) and "Climate Change and USACE" (1/6/2010
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USACE, for more information on USACE mission areas, history, organization, operational facts and figures, environmental enforcement, research, and other

*The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is organized geographically into eight permanent divisions, one provisional division, one provisional district, and one research command reporting directly to the HQ. Within each division, there are several districts. Districts are defined by watershed boundaries for civil works projects and by political boundaries for military projects.

 

> USACE Programs, Services, Resources

Civil Works and Military Programs

The most visible USACE missions include: 1) Planning, designing, building, and operating water resources and other civil works projects, including locks and dams, flood control, beach nourishment, dredging for waterway navigation, and disaster response; 2) Design and construction of flood protection systems through various federal mandates; 3) Design and construction management of military facilities for the Army and Air Force and other Defense and Federal agencies; and 4) Environmental protection/regulation and ecosystem restoration.

Through its Civil Works program, USACE carries out a wide array of projects that provide coastal protection, flood protection, hydropower, navigable waters and ports, recreational opportunities, and water supply. Work includes coastal protection and restoration, including a new emphasis on a more holistic approach to risk management. In both its Civil Works mission and Military Construction program, the Corps is responsible for billions of dollars of the nation's infrastructure. For example, the Corps maintains direct control of 609 dams, maintains and/or operates 257 navigation locks, and operates 75 hydroelectric facilities providing 24% of the nation's hydropower capacity and three percent of its total electricity. USACE inspects over 2,000 Federal and non-Federal levees every two years. Four billion gallons of water per day are drawn from the Corps' 136 multi-use water supply projects, making it one of the nation's largest water supply agencies.

USACE has an active environmental program under both its Military and Civil Works programs. The Civil Works environmental mission ensures that all Corps projects, facilities and associated lands meet environmental standards. The program has four functions: compliance, restoration, prevention, and conservation. The Corps also regulates and permits all work in wetlands and waterways of the United States and is in charge of the Clean Water Act (CWA) Section 404 permits for authorized discharge of sediment into waters of the U.S., including wetlands. The Military environmental program manages design and execution of a full range of cleanup and protection activities: 1) Cleans up sites contaminated with hazardous waste, radioactive waste, or ordnance; 2) Complies with federal, state, and local environmental laws and regulations; 3) Strives to minimize our use of hazardous materials; and 4) Conserves our natural and cultural resources.

 

USACE Sustainability

For much of the past decade, USACE has been seeking ways to ensure that its missions, facilities and operations are sustainable. The sustainability ethic has been part of the Corps' culture since March 2002, when it adopted the Environmental Operating Principles. The first principle sets the stage for the Corps' work - "Strive to achieve Environmental Sustainability. An environment maintained in a healthy, diverse and sustainable condition is necessary to support life." Sustainability also is inherent in the USACE Campaign Plan, which envisions a great engineering force of highly disciplined people working with its partners through disciplined thought and action to deliver innovative and sustainable solutions to the nation's engineering challenges.

To reach its goals, the Corps has created a Strategic Sustainability Performance Plan (June 2, 2010), which was submitted to the Office of Management and Budget and the White House Council on Environmental Quality. The document includes a policy statement, goals and sustainability priorities. Climate change risk and vulnerability to USACE missions, particularly Civil Works and water management control activities (water availability, water demand), is recognized and addressed with proposed adaption strategies, methods and tools. Climate change adaption for water resources include the Responses to Climate Change Program (see below) and Global Change Sustainability Program. Potential impacts on flood risk management, coastal storm risk management, aquatic ecosystem restoration and other missions also are concerns.  

The Corps' efforts to date, guided strategically by the Environmental Operating Principles and the Strategic Sustainability Performance Plan, have resulted in a robust set of effective independent actions, many of them firmly in line with the Army's "triple-bottom-line-plus" of sustainability - mission, environment, community and economics.

 

Responses to Climate Change (RCC) Program

USACE operations and water management control activities provide the largest challenge given future climate change and variability.  In order to ensure continued effective and efficient water operations in both the short (5-10 years) and longer term (10-50 years), nationally consistent but regionally tailored water management adaptation strategies and polices are needed.  Such policies must balance project operations and water allocations within authorized project purposes with changing water needs and climate-driven changes to operating parameters. This must be accomplished while working in close coordination with a wide variety of intergovernmental stakeholders and partners. 

Recognizing the potentially large impacts of climate change on the Corps' mission and water management projects, the Corps has created the RCC Program to "develop, implement, and assess adjustments or changes in operations and decision environments to enhance resilience or reduce vulnerability of USACE projects, systems, and programs to observed or expected changes in climate." Building on existing science and knowledge, the RCC Program is developing methods, policies and processes for effective adaptation of our projects, systems and programs to climate change. The program also must develop methods, policies and processes to assess the effectiveness of climate change adaptation. It is anticipated that assessment will include an evaluation of how well alternative adaptation measures improve system flexibility to perform well over a wide range of future scenarios.

The program develops and conducts vulnerability stress-tests within the Civil Works (CW) Operations and Maintenance (O&M) portfolio of constructed and natural projects. This includes demonstrations of hydrologic frequency analysis under changing conditions and adaptation opportunities presented by more flexible water control and reservoir systems operations. This program also will provide planning and engineering guidance to ensure future infrastructure is designed to be sustainable and robust in a range of potential climate changes.

  • http://corpsclimate.us/, for RCC page and links to pages on the program, climate change impacts, adaptation, interagency/international activities, mitigation; also links to USACE services, guidance, and related links and information; subsequent pages have links to publications, references, resources, presentations, trainings and additional links
  • http://www.usace.army.mil/Pages/default.aspx, for the USACE homepage; point to ‘Services' and link to Services for the Public page and Institute for Water Resources*; then click on right sidebar selection for RCC page
  • http://www.usace.army.mil/CECW/PlanningCOP/Documents/plan_conf/2010/Presentations/ses2_1e.pdf, for an overview of the RCC Program by USACE IWR director (Planning Community of Practice Conference, 6/8/2010); program ties into overarching strategy based on a wide range of USACE partnerships and is founded on integrated water resources planning and management principles

*Institute for Water Resources (IWR) - supports the Civil Works Directorate and other Corps of Engineers commands by developing and applying new planning evaluation methods, polices and data in anticipation of changing water resources management conditions.

 

> Other Programs, Resources, Products

USACE Climate Change Adaptation Initiatives

Federal Climate Change and Water Working Group (CCAWWG)

USACE and five other federal agencies have formed CCAWWG*, a federal research and development (R&D) group. In January of 2010, USACE led the first of a series of CCAWWG workshops on climate change and water management. The primary purpose of CCAWWG is to ensure efficient R&D collaborations and sharing of information across federal agencies toward understanding and addressing climate change and water resources impacts in the United States.

*Originally, CCAWWG had a western United States focus, stood for Climate Change and Western Water Group, and consisted of three Federal entities: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA). Since 2009, CCAWWG interests have broadened to a national view with membership now including USACE, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

 

Technical Report on Managing Water Resources in a Changing Climate

USACE, USBR, USGS, and NOAA collaborated to produce Climate Change and Water Resources Management: A Federal Perspective (USGS Circular 1331, February 2009). This study shows that climate change could affect all sectors of water resources management and presents the best available science to help water managers prepare for, adapt to, and mitigate the effects of climate change on the nation's water resources. It explores strategies to improve water management by suggesting processes to improve tracking, anticipation, and response to climate change effects; it assesses approaches to climate variability and change in water resources management, on which future agency policies, methods, and processes will be based.

 

A Consistent National Datum Addressing Sea Level Changes

USACE developed new guidance in collaboration with NOAA and conducted a comprehensive evaluation of project datums. (See Engineer Circular or EC 1110‐2‐6065/6070, Comprehensive Evaluation of Project Datums; and Engineer Regulation 1110‐2‐8160, Policies for Referencing Project Elevation Grades to Nationwide Vertical Datums). A draft EM is in progress.

 

Guidance Document Addressing Sea Level Rise

USACE updated guidance on sea‐level change to reflect best available science in collaboration with NOAA National Ocean Service and USGS, plus numerous external reviewers.  The new release, entitled Incorporating Sea-Level Change Considerations in Civil Works Programs (EC 1165-2-211, July 2009), instructs project managers to be prepared to implement flexible planning and engineering adaptations that account for a range of possible changes. The guidance requires the analysis of a range of scenarios from low to intermediate to high increased sea levels. Importantly, the low end of the scenarios must incorporate historic trends in sea level, which means that all alternatives will include sea level rise. In addition, the high-end scenario is not limited to the high-end published in the 2007 IPCC report, which is widely recognized to inadequately incorporate dynamic melting of the polar ice caps.

 

Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units (CESU) Network

The CESU national network has been established with an overarching goal of improving the scientific base for managing federal lands by providing high-quality scientific research, technical assistance, and education to resource and environmental managers. It is a nationwide consortium of federal agencies (incl. USACE), universities, conservation organizations, and other partners working together to support agency missions and informed public trust resource stewardship. One objective is to build capacity and enhance coordination of climate change management and adaptation efforts among management agencies.

CESUs are based at host universities and focused on biogeographic regions of the country. To date the nation had been divided into 17 biogeographic regions, each served by a distinct CESU that is structured as a working collaboration among partners. Each regional unit operates independently and in association with one national network and is directed by specific mission, vision, goals and objectives and a strategic plan.

 

> USACE Activity Library

The following sources were acquired through a ‘climate change' search on USACE homepage; this is not a complete list of available sources.

Presentations

"Adaptations to Climate Change: A Comprehensive Systems Approach"

This presentation covers two areas: potential effects of climate change on USACE missions and systems and USACE activities for climate change that includes participation in interagency workgroups.

 

Climate Change Initiatives

These presentations include means for addressing climate change effects on water, fish and wildlife resources and an overview of USACE Responses to Climate Change Program

 

"Western States Watershed Study"

This report describes study scope and ‘water needs and strategies for a sustainable future' tasks conducted by USACE and other agencies/groups. Key resources within USACE and study outputs or products are identified. A shared vision partnership agreement was approved in October 2006 by the Western States Watershed Council to promote and facilitate a long term working and collaborative relationship between participants at the state, federal and local levels to develop the Western States Watershed Study.

 

"Climate Change Concerns for Everglades Restoration Planning"

Climate change impacts to be addressed include warmer temperatures, hydrologic pattern changes, sea level rise. Revisions to USACE planning guidance and regulatory policy in areas subject to sea level rise are needed.

 

"Sea Level Rise in Maryland, Facts and Implications for USACE"

Presentation identifies environment and infrastructure, ecological risk areas, planning and policy needs, plan of action, adaptation/response technical working groups, and other

 

"Reservoir Re-assessment and Re-allocation for Changing Climate"

 

Featured Article

"Climate Change and Water Resources"

This report highlights the increased interest to develop policies to address climate change impacts on water resources, the need to improve communication between science and water management agencies, and a series of presentations of the results of studies of climate impacts on water resources. An objective of the four agencies (USACE, USBR, USGS, and NOAA) will be to work together to develop a "best practices" paper for water management agencies to follow in addressing climate change.

 

Video

"Climate Change in Alaska: Kivalina Shore Protection"

 

TNC Page

Floodplain Ecosystem Management

 

 

 

 
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